


don't keep the cat waiting

by JDKoopa



Series: Felix Birthday Bash [2]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Cats, Embarrassment, Fluff, Sneaking Around
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:26:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22833253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JDKoopa/pseuds/JDKoopa
Summary: Felix meets a cat in the training grounds and wants to give it a treat. Unfortunately he left all his treats in his room, and he'll have to sneak out without anyone seeing him or they'll know about his soft spot for cats.
Series: Felix Birthday Bash [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1640065
Kudos: 16
Collections: Felix Birthday Week 2020





	don't keep the cat waiting

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Felix Week day 2, prompt: Cats

“Meow”

Felix froze. He had been sparring as usual, alone and in silence, when the cat had stepped in his path. Felix’s foot was inches away from the cat’s tail.

“Well, excuse me little buddy. What are you doing here? I thought I was alone.” Felix crouched to get a closer look at the cat. He had always been fond of the cats back home, and when no one was around he slipped treats to the monastery cats.

The cat purred under Felix’s gentle touch, its black fur glistening in the moonlight. Whenever Felix picked up his hand, the cat would look at him with big green eyes, pleading him to give it even more attention.

“I don’t have any treats with me right now, but if you promise to wait here I can go get you some.”

The cat sat down, as if it could understand him. Felix scratched the cat’s head for a second before sneaking out of the training grounds toward the dorms.

The trip to his room was easy, since no one would be suspicious of Felix returning to his own room so late at night. The return trip, on the other hand, took longer than he had hoped. Felix had to be careful as he crept back to the training grounds. 

He didn’t care so much about getting caught be a teacher and sent back to bed. That would be nothing new for him. He was much more concerned about being seen by another student, and forced to explain himself.

When he had retrieved the treat for the cat, Felix stood by his door, waiting for his chance to leave. He was about to open the door when he heard a stifled laugh from down the hall.

Sylvain, that blasted lecher, was sneaking yet another girl back to his room. Undoubtedly she would be gone before the night was through, just another obstacle for him to avoid when he returned to his room later.

After waiting for those two to pass, and hearing their giggling fall silent as they closed Sylvain’s door, Felix opened his door quietly. He peered down the hall, and when he saw no one, he turned back to grab what he needed before tip-toeing to the stairs. 

He didn’t make it very far before Claude, that airhead from the Golden Deer, opened his own door, carrying some vial. Felix had heard Claude was experimenting with poisons that weren’t deadly, but would still incapacitate enemies. Felix couldn’t deny that he was slightly interested, though he prefered to face his foes head on. 

The two boys locked eyes, each surprised to see the other. For a second, they simply stared at each other, before Claude gave a knowing smile and nodded slightly at Felix. I never saw you, you never saw me, Claude seemed to say with the gesture. 

The boys crept down the hall together, stopping only when Claude heard stirring behind the closed doors of their classmates. They finally made it downstairs, and each breathed a sigh of relief. 

“Well, you’re the last person I expected to find sneaking out like this. What are you up to at this late hour?” Felix hated the twinkle in Claude’s eye. He always spoke so jovially, as if he hadn’t a care in the world.

“None of your business, deer. I’m sure you have your own secret reason for coming out here under the cover of dark. I’ll leave you to your business as long as you leave me to mine.”

“Well, ordinarily I might agree with you, Felix. However, your sneaking out raises the likelihood that I’ll be caught. If we don’t return to our rooms at the same time, someone is sure to notice.”

Felix cursed under his breath. Of course Claude was right, but why did it have to be Claude of all people to be sneaking out tonight. The only thing worse than this would be if the boar appeared.

“Listen. My business will take only a few seconds. I’m willing to let you tag along, and I’ll accompany you to wherever it is you wanted to go. We can watch each other’s backs, and then return to the dorms and pretend nothing ever happened.”

“You don’t get to tag along on my business as if we were friends.” Felix said coldly, challenging Claude with his iciest glare. 

“Fine, you win. I’ll just be on my way then. Oh, but you won’t want to go that way, Teach doesn’t sleep very well.” 

Felix stopped mid step. He wanted to keep going, but Claude was, once again, correct. He could never sneak past Byleth’s room. 

“If you ever speak a word of what you see to anyone, the Alliance won’t have anyone left to replace you as a leader.” Felix threatened as he caught up to Claude.

“Oh, don’t worry about that. Just make sure you don’t tell anyone about what I’ve cooked up for them.”

When they got to the mess hall, Claude switched his vial for one that was already among the chef’s ingredients. He performed the switch so smoothly that Felix almost didn’t notice it, even though he was watching for it.

“So you’re just changing some ingredients around? Seems like you could have done that during the day.”

Claude smiled, but didn’t answer right away. When he finally spoke, he said “What about you then? Let’s see this important errand of yours.”

Felix led Claude to the training grounds, though he considered telling Claude to just go back to the room and he’d find his own way back. Unfortunately, he already knew the pesky Almyran would never go for that. 

But Felix, you’ve already seen what I came to do. How will I guarantee you won’t run your mouth to someone? Felix could almost hear the lilt in Claude’s voice. He felt his blood boil just thinking about it. 

When they entered the training grounds, the cat ran to Felix, rubbing against his legs. 

“You waited here after all. Well, patience like that deserves to be rewarded.” Felix forgot about his companion, pulling out a small fish and a ball he had found for the cat to play with.

“You really should be more careful, little one. It’s dangerous stepping under a swordsman’s feet while he’s training.”

The cat purred as Felix scratched its back. Felix tossed the ball and watched his new feline friend chase it around, batting the ball between its paws as it ran.

“So you have a soft spot for cats? That’s certainly unexpected.” Felix stood and abruptly turned to face Claude.

“And what if I do? If you even think about telling anyone I’ll--”

“Yes, yes, don’t worry. I don’t intend to leave the alliance without a leader. If you’re done here, we should be getting back to our rooms though. Seteth is due to make his surprise inspections to make sure no one is out past curfew, which if you haven’t noticed, we are.”

Felix tried to hide his disappointment, but decided it didn’t matter if Claude knew. He scowled as he set down the fish. “I have to go now kitty, but I’m leaving this here for you.”

They snuck back through the mess hall to avoid going by Byleth’s room. When they reached the stairs they noticed a light in the distance behind them. Just as Claude had expected, Seteth was on his way to make sure the students were all in their rooms.

They crept up the stairs together, and went down the hall the same way as before, with Claude signalling only twice that they should wait for movement behind doors to settle down. 

As Claude opened his door, he turned to Felix. “It was a wonderful midnight stroll, we should do this again sometime. Oh, and do yourself a favor. Don’t eat any soup tomorrow.” Claude winked mischievously, then disappeared into his room, closing his door so silently not even Felix could hear it.

Felix entered his own room and fell onto his bed, exhausted. Despite Claude’s annoying cheerfulness, Felix didn’t entirely hate the guy. In face, he had enjoyed wandering the monastery with a companion who would remain silent about their activities.

A few moments later, Seteth poked his head in the door, saw Felix laying in his bed, and left. Felix closed his eyes and was about to drift off, until he heard a girl giggling as she ran by his door, while Seteth scolded Sylvain. 

Felix let out a sigh, before rolling over and letting sleep finally take him.


End file.
